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* stories, people and culture worth remembering
Browsing All Posts filed under »18th Century«
Spring Pastimes
Miyagawa Isshō's "Spring Pastimes" screen from c. 1750 shows a lot of men-on-men flirting and love-making.
Mit Verlangen
November 21, 2010
The giant of baroque religious music, J.S. Bach's musical justification of his style of composing is the cantata Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan. It includes as its centerpiece the homoerotic aria "Mit Verlangen."
Lasse-Maja
November 20, 2010
19th century thief and transvestite/transsexual Lasse-Maja captivated the Swedish public with his escapades, and his charm eventually earned him his freedom.
Enderunlu Fazil
October 27, 2010
The 18th century Turkish poet Enderunlu Fazil describes the charms of youths from Aleppo to Zanzibar in his Book of the Handsome Ones.
Bi Yuan and Li Guiguan
October 26, 2010
The model for China's first gay novel, the real-life 18th century Bi Yuan and Li Guiguan were a gay couple long remembered for their fidelity.
Francesco Algarotti
October 17, 2010
Francesco Algarotti, sometime lover of Lord Hervey and Frederick the Great, was a key figure in spreading art, music and architecture criticism throughout 18th century Europe.
Cult of Kuttantavar
October 15, 2010
The cult of Kuttantavar, popular in Tamil Nadu, attracts tens of thousands of transsexuals to its age-old festival in the village of Koovagam. It also attracts the village men, who dress up like brides.
Mother Clap’s Molly House
October 9, 2010
Margeret Clap - Mother Clap - kept a coffeehouse, Mother Clap's Molly House, frequented by gay men between 1724-1726. Raided by the police at the instigation of the Society for the Reformation of Manners, Mother Clap ended in the pillory.
Fanny Hill
October 7, 2010
The 1748 Fanny Hill - or The Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure to be accurate - is early English pornography with a bit of something for everyone, with plenty of straight, lesbian and even gay sex.
William Thomas Beckford
October 6, 2010
William Thomas Beckford, the richest commoner in late 18th century England, was hounded into exile after letters he wrote to the future 9th Earl of Devon were found by the Earl's uncle, who advertised the romance in the paper.
Tu-Er-Shen
September 29, 2010
Tu-Er-Shen, the Chinese Taoist rabbit deity, was the protector of gay men. It all started when a man called Hu Biantao couldn't stop himself from checking out a handsome imperial inspector in the bathroom.
The Last Medici
September 26, 2010
Gian Gastone, the last Medici Grand Duke of Tuscany, spent his days in bed with a flock of handsome naked men and boys of the street. The line ended with him, surprisingly.
queercult* 
December 5, 2010
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